Twenty-four students from Lowell High School in Massachusetts set out to explore and explain the concepts, federal laws, and Supreme Court decisions that have shaped the meaning of diversity and equity in America. Through prose and through photography, Defining Diversity is a concise and inspiring journey through a century and half of seminal moments in American history told through the voices of the next generation.

Defining Diversity has special resonance because Lowell High was the very first integrated high school in the United States—open to all from its founding in the 1830’s. Today, the school is one of the most diverse in the nation, home to students from 66 countries across five continents.